A symbol in this tradition is not a decoration or a code. It is a compact statement that can be unfolded by meditation, and a tool that focuses the mind on one quality at a time. Most of the signs below are built from a small number of parts, and when the parts are known the signs can be read.
The alphabet
Three shapes behind the glyphs
The planetary signs are combinations of the circle, the crescent and the cross.
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The circle
Spirit
Without beginning or end. The whole, the eternal, the divine source of life.
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The crescent
Soul
A partial circle that receives and reflects. The receptive, changing, feeling nature.
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The cross
Matter
Two lines meeting at right angles. The four directions, the four elements, the world of body and time.
The seven
The planetary glyphs
Read each sign as a statement about how spirit, soul and matter are arranged.
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Sun
Gold / Sunday
The circle of spirit with a point at its center: the source made present. Also the sign for gold and for the self at its center.
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Moon
Silver / Monday
The crescent of soul alone: pure receptivity, reflecting the light it is given. Rhythm, memory and imagination.
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Mercury
Quicksilver / Wednesday
Crescent above circle above cross. The only glyph that contains all three shapes: the messenger who moves between every level.
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Venus
Copper / Friday
The circle of spirit above the cross of matter. Spirit drawing matter upward into harmony and beauty.
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Mars
Iron / Tuesday
The circle with an arrow, in older forms a cross set above the circle. Energy directed outward: force driving spirit into action.
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Jupiter
Tin / Thursday
The crescent of soul rising from the cross of matter. The soul lifted above circumstance: expansion and generosity.
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Saturn
Lead / Saturday
The cross of matter above the crescent of soul. The soul bound by form, limit and time, and taught by them.
The four and the fifth
The elemental signs
Triangles that rise or descend, plain or barred.
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Fire
Hot and dry
A triangle pointing upward, as flame rises. Will, energy and transformation.
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Water
Cold and wet
A triangle pointing downward, as water falls and gathers. Also a cup. Feeling and receptivity.
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Air
Hot and wet
The rising triangle crossed by a bar: it ascends, but less fiercely than fire. Thought and movement.
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Earth
Cold and dry
The descending triangle crossed by a bar: it sinks, and comes to rest. Form and stability.
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Spirit
The quintessence
A wheel of eight spokes. The fifth element, from which the four proceed and in which they are balanced.
The three
The alchemical principles
The tria prima of Paracelsus: soul, spirit and body.
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Sulfur
Soul
The triangle of fire set upon the cross of matter. The burning, active principle: desire and individual character.
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Mercury
Spirit
The same glyph as the planet. The volatile, mediating principle that passes between soul and body and joins them.
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Salt
Body
A circle divided by a horizontal line. The fixed principle: what remains when everything else has been driven off.
The great figures
Stars, serpents and the stone
Larger emblems that summarize a teaching in a single image.
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Hexagram
The macrocosm
The triangles of fire and water interlaced. The union of above and below, and the seven planets: six at the points and the Sun at the center.
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Pentagram
The microcosm
Five points for spirit and the four elements, drawn with one unbroken line. Point upward, it shows spirit governing matter, and the human figure with arms and legs outstretched.
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Heptagram
The planetary week
Seven points for seven planets. Followed around the rim it gives their order in the heavens, and along the lines their order in the week.
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Ouroboros
One is all
The serpent swallowing its tail. One of the oldest alchemical emblems: the unity of matter, the cycle of dissolution and renewal, the end returning to the beginning.
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Caduceus
The staff of Hermes
Two serpents twined about a winged rod. Opposed forces brought into balance around a central axis, and raised.
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The squared circle
The philosophers' stone
A circle within a square within a triangle within a circle. A seventeenth century emblem of the stone: unity, the four elements, the three principles and unity regained.
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The circle and cross
The place of working
The magic circle with its four quarters. The world in balance, with the operator at the point where the lines meet.
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The square of Saturn
The first kamea
Nine cells holding the numbers one to nine, so that every line adds to fifteen. The simplest of the planetary squares used in making sigils.
Working with a symbol
To make a symbol your own, draw it by hand until you can do so accurately from memory. Then use it as the subject of visualization and of meditation, one symbol a week. Record what each one brings to mind. You will find that a sign you have drawn fifty times and contemplated for a week is no longer a picture of an idea. It has become a way of calling that idea up.
The meanings given here are the common ones, and the history of several glyphs is less tidy than the analysis into circle, crescent and cross suggests. That analysis is a teaching device from the Renaissance. It is useful and worth knowing as such.